The Bad Mother's Handbook

Robin studied for her BA (Hons) Film and Television at the London Institute and then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where she mastered in Film and Television Direction, graduating in 1993.

During this period of study, she also worked as a camera assistant with the Director of Photography, Seamus McGarvey, gaining real experience of the nuts and bolts of film making and learning how the industry works.

Her RCA graduation film The Thin Red Line – a political comedy set around the fall of the Berlin wall – won the Jury Prize at the Cork Film Festival and this led to a smooth transition into working as a freelance Director in television.

Starting out at the bottom of the ladder with programmes like The Bill and the BBC drama documentary Rough Justice, Robin progressed to higher budget shows like Playing the Field and had her first big break when asked to be the lead director on the popular series At Home with the Braithwaites.

Now specialising in comedy drama, Robin went on to direct Jack Rosenthal’s adaptation of the Kingsley Amis period comic novel Lucky Jim, Kay Mellor’s contemporary therapy series Between the Sheets and Sally Wainwright’s Sparkhouse – a reinterpretation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

More recently, Robin has worked in other genres, directing Cherished – a drama documentary based on the true story of Angela Cannings – for which she won the Grierson Award in 2005.

Last year, Robin returned to her comedy stable and directed The Bad Mother’s Handbook staring the comedienne Catherine Tate and Kingdom which has an all-star cast headed by Stephen Fry. —The Script Factory